Conception is quite literally the most magical, spectacular thing in our existence. Even if you’re not someone who hopes to become a mama someday and/or motherhood is the last thing from your mind, you can’t deny how incredible it is that an ENTIRE NEW HUMAN LIFE grows, so perfectly, so incredibly, so miraculously, from 2 tiny cells, into the thinking, feeling, smiling, creative, intelligent, silly sweet stinky crazy squishy squonky little pumpkin that is a newborn baby. My reverence for the miracle of pregnancy and birth is almost more than I can bear. If I think too hard about it, I’ll sob out of sheer incredulity that is this unfathomable feat of growing new life and giving birth to it.

There is no one single thing that ultimately landed my sweet baby boy in my arms. I believe it was a compilation of many things, many that I can explain and some that I really can’t. And one more time just to really drive the point home – none of this is medical advice, but merely a testimony of my own experience and things that worked for me. You do you, and as Cynthia and Trisha from Down To Birth Show like to say:: “hear everyone, and listen to yourself”

(PS I HIGHLY recommend this podcast for any woman who is pregnant or looking to become pregnant – in fact, why don’t you just hop off this page real quick and go check them out before you forget. It’s THAT good, I promise!)

Getting pregnant is a multifactorial, complex process that involves the mind, the body, the spirit, the spirit of your unborn baby, and everything in between. To speak of pregnancy without talking about the WHOLE picture of women’s health, and only focusing on the physical aspects of getting pregnant, is thee greatest disservice of our time. If you think the extent of your pre-conception and antenatal experience is a prenatal vitamin and not drinking or smoking, then I urge you to look deeper than that. Pregnancy is SO MUCH MORE than this. Having a healthy pregnancy, uncomplicated physiological birth, and a healthy baby at the end all involves taking care of your WHOLE self – from your physical body to your tender heart to the spirit of the baby you’re carrying.

I did lots of things in the months leading up to getting pregnant, and today I am going to share with you what I believe to be the most integral in finally seeing the positive pregnancy test.

Thing I Did Daily for 6+ Months Prior To Conceiving My Baby

In no particular order of importance …

Morning Sun

Sunshine/natural light in your eyes in the morning does wonders for your hormones. Not only is it wonderfully destressing and truly sets the tone for the day, but it is crucial to getting your hormones in proper balance, and this has a compounding effect (like compound interest in the bank, a little today is a LOT in a few years from now!). When we take in light in the morning, it sort of hits a reset button on your hypothalamus via a bundle of nerves called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It sets your circadian rhythm for the day and sets you up for a good night’s sleep. Yes, the light in your eyes in the morning dictates the quality of your sleep for that night.

8+ Hours of Sleep Every Night

I cannot stress enough the importance of sleep in your quest to get pregnant. Sleep is so underrated, though I do believe its healing properties are more appreciated these days. You can’t heal if you’re not getting adequate, high quality, restorative sleep. You just can’t, sorry! Sleep is when your body goes into heal-repair-detoxification-regenerate mode. I start my night time routine around 8:45pm/9pm, with goal of being asleep by 9:30p/9:45p. This took effort because I do tend toward night owl tendencies (hello years of night shift nursing), but after a couple of weeks of really honing my sleep hygiene, I literally couldn’t naturally stay up past 10pm even if I wanted to! I found that my body REALY LIKES 9 hours a night, I feel totally rested and great with 8 hours, and that anything less than that leaves me scraping the bottom of the barrel. This is what I found to be true for me. You may find that 7 hours is great for you and that 9 is simply too too much (this is my husband, too much sleep and he’s sooo sluggish the next day!), and you may find that 8.25 hours a night is your sweet spot. Either way, prioritizing your sleep is not to be overlooked and not to be skimped upon.

100g of Daily Protein

Raise your hand if you think you eat enough protein. (I thought I was too … 😉) I have a hunch that you think you’re eating more protein than you actually are, and that you think you’re eating plenty throughout your day. Protein is how we rebuild our bodies. Protein is the foundation of every single structure in our body, from muscle to connective tissue to our skin / hair / nails and bones and organs. Protein is how our body synthesizes hormones and enzymes. Protein is how our liver is able to carry out its 500 + functions every single day to keep you alive. Protein is how we balance blood sugar levels throughout the day. Almost every single woman I have ever worked with is undereating protein, myself included. I focused on steadily increasing my intake of protein from around 45g daily up to 80-90g daily, and after lots of trial and error, I found that the sweet spot for my body was right around 100g daily. This amount of protein, I noticed, is when I had the best energy, slept the best, pooped the best, had the best workouts, had the strongest libido, when my skin looked the best, when my mind was the clearest, when my body temperature was the warmest, and when I consistently had regular ovulation and effortless cycles to follow.

Raw Carrot Salad

Dr. Ray Peat, one of the most revered and respected researchers of our time, is the father of the Raw Carrot Salad. He found that raw carrots contain indigestible, non-fermentable fibers that sweep through and “scrub” the whole digestive tract. This scrubbing action reduces the amount of bacterial overgrowth and endotoxin that stick around in the gut. Endotoxins are the byproducts of our bacteria. Bacteria need to eat and eliminate, just like we humans need to eat and eliminate. The build-up of their waste products without sufficient clearing is known as endotoxin. The carrots sweep out this overgrowth of endotoxin, and as a result, lowers gut inflammation. The scrubbing action of the fibers means they are able to bust up biofilms and old waste, it lower metabolic stress/burden, and helps to normalize gut transit time. Carrots also bind to and eliminate unused estrogen, reduce serotonin and histamine, which in turn lowers the body’s need to produce cortisol – our body’s main stress hormone. You MUST address your gut health if you are trying to conceive. And if you are a woman who is suffering from hormonal imbalances and uncomfortable symptoms of estrogen dominance, then you really need to prioritize healing your gut so that you can digest, absorb, and assimilate your nutrition better and sweep out those old estrogens and other endotoxins that negatively impact our health. Your gut microbiome will imprint on your unborn baby, so keep it healthy with a daily raw carrot salad!

“Endotoxin formed in the bowel can block respiration and cause hormone imbalances, so it is helpful to optimize bowel flora, for example with a carrot salad, a dressing of vinegar, coconut or olive oil, carried into the intestine by the carrot fiber, suppresses bacterial overgrowth while stimulating healing of the wall of the intestine. The carrot salad improves the ratio of progesterone to estrogen and cortisol.”   Dr. Ray Peat

Minerals

As the OG-in-all-things-minerals Morley “Mag Man” Robbins taught me in my Root Cause Protocol training – “there is no medical disease; only metabolic dysfunction due to mineral deficiency.” Prior to my training at the RCP, I had no idea the unbelievable importance of minerals and their role in quite literally every single metabolic process in our body.  Once you understand that minerals are required for every single thing going on in your body, you will never underestimate their importance again. Right there, you reading that sentence, just required a buttload of minerals to interpret and understand. And that’s not even considering the amount of minerals your body is using to make energy to keep your heart beating, your brain thinking, your cells humming away to ya know, KEEP YOU ALIVE. Minerals will change your life. The big kahunas sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium are without a doubt some of the most important, and daily replenishment is a must for not only survival, but true thriving. And remember, the minute you realize you are stressed/anxious/in fear mode, you’re operating in a state of mineral deficiency, most notably magnesium. Pregnancy is an extremely mineral intensive state, and the cost is HIGH if we aren’t intentional about replenishing minerals daily while we are pregnant. My top choices for mineralization during pregnancy include: daily magnesium bicarbonate, drinking mineral rich teas like red raspberry leaf tea and nettles, liberally salting my food with the highest quality sea salt I could find, salting my water, daily sometimes twice daily adrenal cocktails, and shilajit.

Reduced My Stress

It goes without saying that stress is without a doubt one of the worst detriments to our health on a myriad of levels. As someone who lived for YEARS in a high stress state due to my chosen career (hello, ICU nursing), I had no idea the toll it was taking on my body, my adrenals, my hormones, and my fertility. I felt GREAT – until I didn’t. Because running on stress hormones feels really really good. Just ask anyone who starts their day with a cup of coffee and then minutes later its like BAM OMG OKAY I CAN DO ANYTHING WRITE THAT NOVEL MOVE THAT PIECE OF FURNITURE START A NEW BUSINESS LETS EFFING GOOOOOOO – yeah that would be the stress hormones talking! They feel so good! Stress hormones are good in times of danger, as they help us have the energy and fuel reserves to escape the angry bear, but in these exceedingly high amounts, day in day out for years and years due to our lifestyle? Mmmm nope. The body eventually says “I literally can’t keep up with the demands of your life anymore. I am fresh OUT OF RESOURCES because you haven’t been fueling me appropriately for years, you haven’t been replacing the huge amount of minerals that are lost in daily life, and now I’m done. I can’t give you great energy every day. I can’t give you a healthy functioning gut. I can’t give you a happy healthy thyroid and a healthy metabolism. I can’t give you a sex drive. I can’t give you hormones in the necessary and appropriate levels throughout the month to satisfy a happy easeful period. I can’t give you an egg to drop every month because I LITERALLY CAN’T SUPPORT YOUR LIFE AND THE LIFE OF A NEW BABY, TOO.” I took every single stressful thing out of my life, because I knew that I needed this level of radical healing if I ever wanted to be a mama. I quit my stressful ICU nursing job of 12 years within a week of realizing all of this. Yes, this means I left a Bay Area nursing salary because having no money coming in WAS LESS STRESSFUL than going back to that hell hole. I walked every single day. I spent time in nature every single day. I put my bare feet in the grass every single day. I meditated every single day. I did yoga. I took baths. I went to bed early. I journaled and read and prayed. I stopped interacting with stressful accounts on the internet. I set boundaries around everyone and everything that was not in keeping with my highest good. I stopped intense workouts. I curated my entire life around having low to no stress. I realized that what stress was costing me was not worth it to continue doing life the way I had for 12 years. These were the things I needed to do in order to create the life I wanted, in order to restore my fertility and, and in order to be in the best possible health when the time did come to conceive my baby. My choices may not necessarily be the right choices for you. Quitting your job and upheaving your career are not always the right choices for people. But I can’t over state enough the importance of taking inventory of the areas of stress in your life, and doing every single thing in your power to eliminate them, or make them significantly less stressful so that you can lower your overall stress burden, so that your body no longer perceives being in survival mode. Remember we don’t get pregnant when we are in survival mode.

Walking

Walking is not only a cure all for what ails you, whether it be a bad mood, a shitty night’s sleep, low energy, or just about anything and everything else under the sun – but it happens to be one of the easiest, free-est, and most accessible things we can do. Exercise, while it’s a lovely thing and yes indeed does provide lovely endorphins and feel-good neurotransmitters, is a stressor on the body (albeit a good stressor, when we are fueled appropriately prior to working out, and when we aren’t overdoing it). Walking is a great way to move the body without sending it into stress mode (again with the lowering stress!). If I wanted to up the ante and sweat a bit more, I would throw on my 5lb ankle weights. Walking provides the added benefit of nature, sunlight, human interaction, opportunities for connection, fresh air, smells of nature, etc. I can’t recommend walking enough!

Things I did a few times a week prior to conceiving (not every day)

Cod Liver Oil

Cod liver oil became a staple in my life once I learned the importance of preformed vitamin A, aka retinol. This is a vitamin that I know I have been deficient in throughout life, mainly because I did not grow up on vitamin A rich foods (liver, cod liver oil, cod livers, raw milk, etc). Retinol is essential for activating ceruloplasmin, aka bioavailable copper – one of the key enzymes our body needs to make energy! I also follow the teachings of Weston A. Price and the documented benefits of cod liver oil are far reaching from bone and teeth health, all the way to hormone production, mineral metabolism, eye sight, healthy skin, and the proper formation of the heart of your unborn baby! Retinol also provides protection against environmental chemicals and estrogenic substances that we are exposed to all to regularly in our daily lives! And we know that these chemicals can cause birth defects. Retinol is crucial to proper fetal development! I took 1 tsp of Rosita Cod Liver Oil 3-4 times a week.

Beef Liver

Beef liver is one of the most nutritionally dense foods in the whole entire world! It provides protein as well as crucial vitamins / minerals such as: vitamins A, D E & K, folate, thamin, B6, riboflavin, niacin, choline, B12, calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium, copper, zinc and phosphorus. To say it’s a nutritional powerhouse is an understatement. I chose to eat my liver raw and in little chunks (I would cut them up real small and take them like I would a pill, chased with OJ of course!), but many choose to either cook it, add it to beef dishes like shepherd’s pie, meatballs, bison Bolognese, or make pate. If you really can’t tolerate the taste, choosing a high quality desiccated liver supplement is an option too. I took about 1oz of raw liver about 3-4 times a week.

While I can never attribute one single thing to getting pregnant with Wyatt, I KNOW that being more intentional about the way I approached my fertility as a whole DID lead to our little bub. My whole life became about optimizing my body, allowing in more joy and pleasure, and supporting my fertility. If something wasn't in keeping with this path I wanted for myself, if it wasn't serving my body, my mind, my spirit, my energy, my ovaries, my hormones, and my fertility, it was out.

I nourished myself mindfully.

I rested when my body asked me to, and I prioritized good quality sleep. A lot of the time I did LESS (which was a huge undertaking for someone who has been on the go since toddlerhood haha)

I regulated my circadian rhythm with the sunlight.

I supported my gut through the carrot salad.

I was very aware of my mineral intake and replenished appropriately.

I ate ancestral foods that supported my micronutrient status.

I reduced stress through a multitude of ways and cultivated even more pleasure and joy in my life, which in its own way reduced stress even more.

I encourage any woman reading this, any woman on her own fertility journey, any woman who has been doing all.the.things and still isn't where she wants to be -- slow down.

Bring it all back to the basics.

Eat well.

Sleep well.

Poop well.

Move well.

Be well.

Get outside.

Be one with the sunrise and the sunset.

Lower your stress.

Fiercely protect your boundaries and only allow in that which serves you.

Your baby is on its way to you, probably sooner than you think. Create the kind of vibrant health in your body that will easily and effortlessly host the new life that is on its way to you right now.

Tell me in the comments below -- how are you going to be more intentional about nourishing yourself and your fertility today?

Yours In Abundant Health and Love,

xoxo

Emily 😊